If Thursday’s opening round game against Indiana (6-24 overall, 1-15) is any indication, it’s clear the Spartans mean business.

MSU rolled Indiana — in a day of lopsided scores for the Big Ten — beating the Hoosiers 97-68 in the Spartans’ most thorough victory of the conference season.

It’s easy to dismiss the score because Indiana has been the conference’s worst team all season, but the Spartans have been pummeling nearly every opponent they’ve faced the past month.

MSU has won five games in a row, eight of the last nine, and during the current winning streak, the Spartans are beating opponents by an average of 19.8 points per game.

Those aren’t just wins; they’re blowouts, with two of the past five drubbings coming against ranked opponents.

MSU will be playing one of those ranked opponents, No. 21 Purdue (21-8, 11-5) again today (approximately 8:25 p.m., Big Ten Network) in a true test of how far the Spartans have come.

Earlier in the season, MSU lost to Purdue 67-49 on Jan. 23, with the Spartans only able to muster 15 first half points in what the team considers its worst performance of the season.

The Spartans were able to get some revenge within the last two weeks, beating the Boilermakers 67-52 on Feb. 19, but MSU had to win the game in overtime after letting a lead held throughout the game slip away toward the end of regulation.

Sophomore guard Klarissa Bell echoed the sentiments of many of her teammates, saying today’s game will be personal for the Spartans as they try to show they’re better than they played in the teams’ first meeting and that the overtime victory wasn’t a fluke.

“I definitely think there’s some revenge,” she said. “I’m sure people have their doubts and people already have who they think is going to be in the semifinals and the championship game, but I think we’re going to prove them wrong.”

A spot in the NCAA Tournament is all but wrapped up, regardless of tonight’s outcome, but MSU has gone from a team that needed to show it was good enough to make the field of 64, to one that’s not satisfied with anything short of a championship.

This is a team on a mission, in almost every sense of the word, playing with a fury and determination for the better part of the past month that’s been unrivaled.

They started the regular season unranked, despite coming off a conference championship the year before.

They lost four straight games for the first time since 2008 and were given up on by many as a team that could contend for an NCAA Tournament berth, let alone a Big Ten title.

And after taking a moment during that losing streak to question whether their team goals were attainable, the squad became determined to show everyone they were.

One down, three to go, and the chance to make history sitting right there for the taking.

And like King Leonidas’ cry of “molon labe,” these Spartans are planning to stake claim to what they believe is rightfully theirs.

Josh Mansour is the women’s basketball reporter for The State News. He can be reached at mansou13@msu.edu.